Veteran Member of WWL Production Team Dies at 61

By Merrill Knox 

Alvin Gauthier Jr., a 39-year veteran of the production department at New Orleans CBS-affiliate WWL, died on Wednesday of natural causes. He was 61.

Gauthier worked at WWL from 1971-2009. Before he retired, he was the floor director and studio camera operator for the morning and noon newscasts.

“On a show like the morning show, with so many guests … sometimes it’s like a three-ring circus in that studio,” WWL anchor Eric Paulsen told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “He was a born leader.”

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Rob Nelson, who left WWL last year to join ABC’s “World News Now,” told the Times-Picayune Gauthier was a mentor to him.

“He had a lot of insight and passion about the business and knew more than most people,” Nelson said.

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